Oil worker still missing after blast

Monday

Nov 19, 2012 at 3:51 PM

A company-led search continued today for a worker still missing after an oil platform caught fire Friday about 25 miles off Grand Isle.

Matthew AlbrightStaff Writer

A company-led search continued today for a worker still missing after an oil platform caught fire Friday about 25 miles off Grand Isle.Search crews with Black Elk Energy, the Houston-based company that owns the platform, found the body of one crewman Saturday evening. Meanwhile, doctors said one of four men burned in the blaze is improving and is now in fair condition at Baton Rouge General MedicaCenter’s burn unit.“To my relatives, to my family, and to my country, I am alive and in good health,” the worker, Wilberto Ilagan, 50, said in a statement. “I am burned, but my heart and lungs are healthy.Two remained critical and one in serious condition, doctors said.Three dive boats were working today around the burned platform, and Plaquemines Parish sheriff’s deputies were checking beaches, Black Elk Energy said in a statement. Helicopter companies flying in the area have been asked to keep an eye out, and a search-and-rescue dog was expected to be brought to the platform.“We remain focused on the victims and their families, including those injured,” the statement said.Of the 11 workers, all but four were treated and released Friday from local hospitals, including Terrebonne General Medical Center in Houma and Our Lady of the Sea in Galliano. All four men are natives of the Philippines and employees of Galliano-based company Grand Isle Shipyard.The Coast Guard suspended its own search Saturday evening after checking 1,400 square miles of the Gulf of Mexico near the oil platform.Mark Pregeant, Grand Isle Shipyard’s CEO, said the company would not release more information about the workers involved until it got approval from family membersThe Coast Guard said the explosion and fire erupted Friday morning as workers were using a cutting torch on a 75-foot pipe on the platform.Pregeant’s statement, however, says the cause of the fire and explosion is unknown and that “initial reports that a welding torch was being used at the time of the incident or that an incorrect line was cut are completely inaccurate.” Separate from the explosion, Grand Isle Shipyard is facing a lawsuit by a group of former workers from the Philippines who claim they were confined to cramped living quarters and forced to work long hours for substandard pay. The lawsuit was filed in late 2011 in a Louisiana federal court and is pending. Lawyers for the company have said the workers’ claims are false and should be dismissed.The workers recently obtained conditional class certification for allegations that Grand Isle Shipyard didn’t pay them properly for overtime and may have violated other fair-labor standards, said attorney Joseph C. Peiffer. He said a notice will go out soon to let other workers know they might be able to join the lawsuit. He said he was not representing the injured workers but didn’t rule out the possibility that he might do so. Meanwhile, Black Elk said no oil was leaking from the charred platform, which hasn’t been operating since August.